Our story
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Inspired by the chai wallahs of India, we embarked on the challenge of recreating this traditional drink as a latte fit for todays’ cafés. It was a humble beginning – sourcing and experimenting with high quality spice ingredients to create a traditional blend that could be enjoyed by a broader range of chai drinkers. Our first blend was more in the tradition of the wallahs – 20kg mixed in our home kitchen.
GROWING DEMAND
Fortunately, our new creations were quickly welcomed into the Christchurch café scene. Coffee roasters, realising the benefits of providing quality coffee-alternatives to their client cafés, became our distributors. This allowed professional blending and packing contractors to be employed for our steadily increasing batch sizes. Soon our chai was being served in cafés throughout New Zealand.
CHAI TO THE WORLD
Upon commencing export to Australia, managed in Melbourne by our son Jimmy, it became clear that a wider range of products was required to make an impact in the competitive Melbourne café scene. So Jimmy created Urban Blends - a premium range - which included chai, turmeric, beetroot and matcha lattes, together with high quality cacao hot chocolates.
The success of Urban Blends encouraged us to establish our own production facility in Melbourne, allowing us complete control over quality and development of new products.
We are now pleased to be able to also offer the premium Urban Blends range to New Zealand cafés.
